How to convert Audible Format 4 (.aa) to .mp3
Let me be clear, this is not a piracy technique, this is a way to use content you already purchased on Windows Mobile based phones/devices in the way you want to use it.
Do Not Steal Software or Content – it’s theft stupid.
This guide will NOT CONTAIN ANY LINKS
Audible “Support” claims that only format 2, and 3 work on Windows Mobile 5/6 Devices, keep in mind that this is because they lock down their format to their player. Format 2, and 3 are low quality MONO audio formats. Format 4 which is the closest to .mp3 and happens to be stereo is not supported…. That really sucks, nothing like listening to 24 hours of mono audio. I pay for their “service” which entitles me to 1 credit every 30 days, in my case 1 audio book. Who cares what device I play it on Audible, my media card is agnostic and does not have hardware limitations. DRM in general really honks me off, so with that in mind I went all google nuts and put together a way that works for me from a few different sources. A small guide on how to do this below:
Step 1 – Gather Resources
You will need to get the following software/stuff to make this work
1. Current paid for Audible Account
2. AudibleManager Software
3. AudibleMediaPlayerFilter.exe (Used to be available from Audible, but sadly they don’t offer it anymore)
4. Goldwave 5.0.6 (Pay, buy it, it is very good)
5. Lame .mp3 encoder (Free)
6. mp3split (Open Source)
7. A beefy Storage Card (8gb MicroSD in my case)
Step 2 – Uninstall/Install/Select/Convert/Split
1. This assumes that you have already downloaded your audio book/books and that you have installed AudibleManager. If you have not done so, install AudibleManager and download your media. Make sure it is format 4.
2. Shut Down AudibleManager
3. Move your freshly downloaded book to a different directory than the current directory I suggest C:\Audiobooks. In Vista the files will be located in C:\Username\My Douments\Audible\Downloads or something close to that. In XP they will be in C:\Documents And Settings\Username\My Documents\Audible\Downloads.
4. Important – UNINSTALL AUDIBLEMANAGER
5. Install AudibleMediaPlayerFilter.exe, in both Vista and XP you will receive 1 or more .dll errors. No worries here, just Google the .dll files you need, they are freely available. Put them in C:\Windows\System32. Then re-install again and repeat until you have no more errors.
6. Install Goldwave, it will complain that there is no encoder present for mp3, that’s ok, just install it. Now go to the program directory that contains Goldwave, it’s in C:\Program Files\Goldwave. Copy the Lame Encoder files to the Goldwave directory. Now go back to your desktop and run the install again, don’t worry just run it, it will not complain about the encoder this time, if it does, try a different directory inside Goldwave.
7. That was the hard part, fire up Gold Wave. It is a really great piece of software, problem is the newest version no longer supports this feature, so you have to use an older version. I would suggest that you register it, I did. I now use it for all my conversion needs.
8. Go to settings and configure your default audio format, don’t get too crazy here Chief, these files are going to be huge, so set a reasonable bit-rate. The quality of format 4 is not that great to begin with. I use a variable bit rate up to 192kbps. That gives me a file size of around 900mb’s per 8 hours of audio.
9. Select Batch from the toolbar\menu, then add the files you downloaded, remember they are in C:\Audiobooks or wherever you put them.
10. Wait a minute home-skillet, there are no files in that directory, change the selection to “all files” and there you go all your files should be there ready for you to select.
11. At this point it will ask you to enter your Audible account information, once it “authorizes” you can proceed.
12. Once you have selected the files, go ahead and start the processing, it will take quite a while to finish. 8 hours of audio takes about 3 minutes for it to initially read and about 25 minutes for it to convert to .mp3. I have a Quad Core (Q6600) with 4gb of ram and the software will use about 1.5gb of memory and all 4 cores. I also did this same process on a Core2 Duo (2.13Ghz) machine with 2gb of ram, it took the same amount of time.
13. Ok, processing is done, install mp3split. I suggest you split the files into 30min segments, it’s pretty straight forward, if you need help there are tons people using this program, just go to Sourceforge and look around.
14. That’s it you are done, you just have to move the files to your device of choice. FYI it will take forever if you are going to do this via Activesync (40-50min). I suggest a card reader.
It seems more complicated than it really is, once you have it up and running it’s pretty painless, just takes a while
Other Method -- The Analog Hole
*Disclaimer* this takes forever, it’s one to one, so 8 hours of audio will take 8 hours to record, plus conversion time.
Programs like Tunebite don’t do anything special that you can’t emulate with open source software like Audacity. It is very much like the olden days of yore where you had to tape stuff off the radio.
1. Download and install Audacity, Lame Mp3 Encoder, AudibleManager and your Audiobooks.
2. Start Audacity, for source select “what you hear” then hit the record button.
3. Start AudibleManager, and play your Audiobook.
4. Go back to Audacity and check your levels, make sure you are not clipping. If the audio goes into the red too often your recording will sound like doggie poop. You may have to start over a few times to get it right.
5. I suggest you unplug your speakers and go take a nap, play some 360, whatever, just make sure you come back by the end of the book.
6. Save the file you recorded as a .mp3 file, wait for it to finish (it will take a while), then split the files if you so desire.
7. Transfer the files to your device.
Pro’s
*The files you end up with are DRM Free and can be played back on anything capable playing .mp3 files.
*You don’t have to use .mp3 if you don’t want to, you could use ogg for example.
*You can pick any splitting point you like to save space on your device.
*You don’t have to use their player, which saves memory.
Con’s
*The difference in file size between .aa and .mp3 is significant, .aa is around 100mb for 8 hrs of audio, while the mp3’s are about 700-900mb. Hopefully Audible will change their mind and add format 4 to Windows Mobile devices, until then this is what I have to do to listen to stereo audio books on my AT$T Tilt.
*It takes some mucking around with .dll files, google, and reading skills, I know some people want an all inclusive piece of software that does this.
You loose the book art and the book-marking feature of the Audible Player. (use your favorite media application to add any art you want)
Bonus Tip#1 – Install software like File Renamer and cut down the filename length and remove your username from the file name, it will make it much easier to read on your device.
Bonus Tip#2 – Use different media players for different things, I use HTC Audio Manager for audio books and S2P for regular .mp3 files.
Bonus Tip#3 – Put your music in a different folder than your audio books, it helps keep everything organized.
Bonus Tip#4 – Keep your purchases DRM FREE, use Amazon for music instead of iTunes. Support the EFF, and don’t steal music/content/software.
This is in no way my work, just a compilation of other techniques I found using Google. Wait, what’s a Google? Seriously, how did you get here without using Google? I know Live Search and Yahoo are very “neat” looking, but for serious searching please use Google.
what a great help
I got to say i was kinda hesitant but made a stab at it anyway. I have the tilt also bought bluetooth headset for audio books. Went to audible paid subscription set it up downloaded it and F#[email protected][email protected] only receive book in mono. Listening to an eight hour book on headset with one speaker working is a joke. I followed your instructions all the way to the lame encoder. got a little lost just converted file to wma which i hope will work on mobile 6 i have a 8g card so if i have a problem i will split it with suggested software. Just want to take the time to thank you for the thoughtful insight on this subject. What a joke having paid for the audio book and have to listen to it in mono. The instructions were extremely easy to follow and well thought out. Except the part of mp3 encoder from lame to goldwave cant get it to work but nonetheless a great help to me and i am writing just to say thanks...............keep up the good work.............
Or you can just wait for the next Audilble Player to come out... which will have BT stereo and level 4. The closed beta is being worked on already.
I am plannng on a quick rewrite of the guide soon, I can,t wait till Audible releases a new player. I love the service, but I really hate the current player.
Well it's been years. I think this post should be deleted as the information is pretty much irrelevant. I hope it helped someone in it's day.
Thanks!
itrooper
aa to mp3
personally I think, that TuneConverter is a better software for this purpose. First of all it converts without quality loss, it supports all the most popular formats like aa, aac, m4a, wma and it can easily strip iTunes, Zune or Wal-Mart...
This is why I advice just to give it a try.
Do you have a link for TuneConverter?
I usually go the complicated way of:
- download as Format "4"
- write to CD (virtual CD), which includes the titles as CD Text
- rip CD(s), converting tracks to titles from CD Text
Audio quality is just bearable with format "4" (I guess ~32k mp3), but the path of ripping to CD is the only one if you don't want to have iTunes installed.
To deal with the Audible AA to MP3 conversion, you can use TuneFab Apple Music Converter. As an excellent audio DRM removal, it has the ability to remove DRM from the AA audiobooks and convert protected AA to MP3, FLAC, M4A, etc. for making AA files available on any media player and device. Better still, the original ID Tags and chapter info will be preserved in output MP3 or M4A files while converting.
What I used to convert Audible audiobooks is this one, but it is not a freeware. If necessary, you can try it from it's website.
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I have tried the software, but most of them can't keep the original quality of Audible files.
Currently, I used the DRmare Audiobook Converter for Mac. It seems it the software that is most closest to it.
I will give a try soon my friend also recommend me another one calls Tunelf Audible Audiobook Converter ,seems have similar function.
Hi,
I am making a program for recording sound. I have completed the basic record functions and the interface. However, when I test it, I have no idea how to make use of the emulator to test if the program really work. Shall my computer equip with mic to test it?
Other than that, since my program will create a .3gp audio file in a designated path, but I have no idea how to view the folder in the emulator as i dont find something like a file manager in it... could anyone advice?
Thank you very much for your help.
This outlines a solution to people with Android 4.1 and above who previously could stream their Audiobook collection to their Phone/Tablet using ICS or earlier.
There are a lot of threads about 'user access' to CIFS/SMB having been 'broken' in JellyBean, and giving very useful suggestions to fix this, but all seem to require a 'rooted' device. I suspect in most cases it is the inability to select and stream Audio/Video files from a networked source which is a main cause for concern.
This solution will work without root access.
Prior to JellyBean one could often point an Audio Book player to a shared folder on a computer or NAS, and access a collection of audio files from a folder on an external device. This is no longer possible for most of the players currently available.
I recently bought a Tablet running Android 4.2.2, and have tried many players, up till now, without success. Of course one can still transfer all files for a particular book to your device, and play them that way, but this is wasteful of time and device memory if you have your collection on a networked system.
Some 'File Managers' can access your networked audio/video files, but invariably will stop playing at the end of the selected file. Not much good for Audio Books.
Today I found a free App that solves this issue.
'Network Audio Player', (NAP) available free from PlayStore has built in CIFS/SMB networking capabilities.
It will identify your network WORKGROUP, and you can select/play individual files, and more importantly a whole directory for addition to the programs 'Playlist'.
The program remembers the last file and it's position, essential for listening to Audio books, and you can quickly manipulate your files. Audio files will play in the background.
The only thing it lacks is a 'sleep timer', which is very useful for book listening. All is not lost, however, there is another free application available to do this, called 'Sleep Timer'. So once your Audio Book is playing, just open 'Sleep Timer', set how long you want it to operate, and at the end of that time it automatically 'pauses' the audio play.
The 'Network Audio Player' interface is not, in my opinion, as easy to use as a dedicated Audio Book player, but not difficult. The 'trick'' is to select 'Network', then navigate to the folder containing the audio book you want to listen to , but do NOT open the folder. Highlight the entry, with a long press, then select 'Add to playlist'. Then select the Playlist option, and choose your file where you want to start. Finally select 'Playing' and all the controls you need are displayed, including volume and position sliders, plus play/pause and navigation buttons.
The above is equally applicable to music files of course.
Owners of Archos Tablets already have network (SMB) access via 'Archos Music', and this is also available as a 'paid' App. This is mostly satisfactory for Audio Books, in combination with 'Sleep Timer', but it does not remember the last track/position once it has been closed, so not ideal.
Playing video files via a Network, on JellyBean is catered for by many available standard File Apps such as Easy File Explorer, where the playing of just one file at a time is less problematic than accessing the multiple files of an Audio Book. Once Again, Archos Tablets have the Archos Video Player as standard, which allows the viewing and playing of network share files. It too can be purchased as a paid APP.
I hope this proves useful to Audio Book fans. It solved my problem very nicely.
Quick Update
The Network Audio Player now has a built in Timer.
As far as I can tell it is still the only App that has built in cifs/smb functions, which will operate on KitKat and later, allowing network access, selection and playback of Audio Book files/folders without having to download them to your device first.
Although it is still advertised only as a music player, it functions excellently with Audio Books.
I have an Online Radio App and would like to add some sort of recording feature on it. I have done quite a bit of research and found one solution and from what I understand maybe the only solution is to rip it byte by byte. I have also tried to use the built in android recording method but it only records from the mic and I do not know or cannot figure out how to record from an external source such as a url like http://92.68.34.221:7000. Currently I am using the default Android media player method to play the url and its working flawlessly problem is I would like to set up the recording feature as a service to where when a the button is clicked run the service start recording and when it is clicked again terminate the service and save the file in a folder called online radio. Button might end up being a ToggleButton. I would really appreciate it if anyone could help me out and steer me in the right direction. Thanks in Advance
Saving a stream to file is quite easy, but if you want to define the exact start and end point of saving/recording by a button click it gets difficult.
You'll have to change your implementation a lot. Your android mediaplayer class handles everything for you, it opens the stream, fills a buffer and starts playing when the buffer is full. The mediaplayer doesn't offer any access to the bytes that it received.
Next problem: If you click on the button to start recording, the bytes you are listening to, have been in the (internal) buffer for an unknown amount of time. So you can't just open another connection to the stream url to start saving the bytes.
I would try it this way:
Implement these three parts in three different threads.
1. Use android.media.MediaExtractor to open the stream and implement a ringbuffer to store the extracted bytes
2. Use android.media.MediaCodec to decode your stream to pcm.
3. And use android.media.AudioTrack to play the pcm stream
Choose the size of the ringbuffer as large as the buffer of the AudioTrack. (Size in seconds, not in bytes!)
When the user clicks on the record button, you can read the data out of the ringbuffer, (encode them back to mp3 or something else) and save them to a file.
Not very easy for a beginner, but its a way you can do it.
I want to records short audio on the Android and recognize it with google cloud. The idea would be to stop the recorder when there is a pause, or after a few seconds or so, whichever comes first. I tried the built-in speech recognizer, but it no longer seems to support stopping the listener at will, and instead waits for 5 to 6 seconds after the last utterance before stopping, which makes it unusable to me. Further, i may want to temporarily store the audio files.
Some testing with google cloud speech shows promise, and now i want to record the audio in a supported format. Google speech recognizer lists supported encodings here and MediaRecorder here. The only overlap seems to AMR_WB. The speech recognizer recommends using lossless, where available.
So, that leads me to AudioRecord (i'm not quite sure why i didn't start there in the first place), with a lot more formats available.
One more point, is that the speech recognizer request (ultimately to be made from a separate system) can be sent with Base64 encoding (as opposed to saving the audio file on the google cloud).
I have three questions right now:
Which audio format does it make the most sense to use?
How do i encode it afterwards in Base64?
How do i stop the recorder when the user stops talking or after a set amount of seconds, whichever comes first?